


Float Like a Feather

by Poetoaster



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M, Family, Gen, Meet-Cute, Noodle Incidents, Republic City, Self-Acceptance, Self-Denial, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-11
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-14 12:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7170929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Poetoaster/pseuds/Poetoaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On the ever-elusive quest for Self in Republic City, Jinora ends up finding an unlikely roommate, LOTS of wasabi, and a little romance along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Job Hunting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Never_Out_Of_Style](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Never_Out_Of_Style/gifts).



> Based on the Noodle Shop AU writing prompt given by my writing group.

“Hey! You home? I brought noodles.”

The door slammed shut and Jinora winced at the noise. Behind the wall, the wind whined for her attention. She ignored it and took off her gloves. It had been so long since she’d seen the blue arrows inked on her hands that she paused for a moment, tracing the tattoo’s outline absently with her fingers. She glanced at her reflection in the window and lifted up her bangs, now swept across her forehead, to make sure the arrow was still there. It was.

“I said _noodles_! Speak now or they become mine!”

Lin descended the stairs. “I’m here, I’m hungry, and I am taking this.” She began shoveling the bowl’s contents into her mouth with a grin. “Spicy. You’re a quick study, kid. I may be glad I let you stay here, after all.”

“As if you had a choice.” Jinora snorted, taking off her shoes. “You’re practically--” She’d been about to say _family_ , but the word still tasted bitter to her. If she’d wanted to escape so badly, why keep bringing them up in casual conversation?

Lin’s keen eyes narrowed in the seconds it took for Jinora to struggle in finishing the sentence. She smoothly cut into the silence. “--starved, because of how long it took you? Guess I’m becoming dependent.” She winked, an odd expression for her normally somber face. Or at least, it had been atypical all Jinora’s growing up years. These past few weeks, she’d seen a side of Lin she hadn’t known existed. It made sense to her now, the attraction between Lin and her father in their youth.

“So since you’re back this late, does that mean you found a job?”

Jinora nodded. The unassuming noodle shop still loomed large in her mind’s eye, even though it looked exactly the same as the other 50 or so she’d first inquired at.

She wasn’t sure what had led her to the shop, nestled in amidst the winding alleys of Republic City, hiding in an out-of-the-way little corner. Before coming to the city, Jinora had navigated through life like a bird finds its way through a breeze, letting the wind blow right into her feather bones and turn her whichever way she was supposed to go. But recently, that sense had quieted to a small buzz in the back of her mind. She thought she’d felt it on her way to this particular shop, but it could have been just a slight headache from putting off lunch for too long.

“So, who finally hired you? I know just about every noodle shop in this town.” Lin was tipping the bowl to get the rest of the broth. “Wait, wait-- don’t tell me. Let me guess . . .” She smacked her lips and paused dramatically. Jinora giggled. “. . . Is it Jin’s?”

“You know, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. I think you might be addicted to yakisoba.”

Lin’s eyebrow shot up. “Or, you’re still wearing your work apron.”

Jinora looked down at the emblem stitched into her apron, “Jin’s Noodles and Takeout,” and laughed.

* * *

 

Later, in Lin’s spare room that she’d begun to make her own, with the lights off so Lin thought she was sleeping, Jinora sat cross legged, eyes closed.

She tried to chase that feather-light feeling, the sensation of calm and nothing followed by a gentle falling into the Spirit World. The night was warm, and the beads of sweat forming at the edge of her nose distracted her.

It wasn’t the first time she’d tried meditating since coming to the city. Hell, since before the city. The latest in a long string of failed attempts, and Jinora couldn't help but think it wouldn't be the last. The feeling that bloomed up inside of her was more than embarrassment; it was loneliness and humiliation and wondering how the hell she'd get back to where she'd been.

When she awoke, it was to dawn, and the sharp pain of a crick in her neck.

* * *

 

He watched her walk into the shop.

“Hi! Welcome to Jin!” He beamed automatically, whirling around to put in a ticket to the kitchen. “How can I help you?”

Kai's naturally enthusiastic personality hid his exhaustion at repeating the same phrase 100 times a day.

“Um, hi,” she said, eyes blinking behind a fringe of bangs.

In the most cliche of ways, he was drawn to her:  inexplicably. 

“Hey. So, what can I do for you?”

She cocked her head and paused uncertainly. “I was hired yesterday. So maybe you can tell me what I can do for you?”

“Sorry,” he shook his head, feigning concern, “but you can’t have been hired here.”

The girl stared at Kai. She mutely held up a Jin apron, attempted proof at her validity as an employee.

Kai nodded good-naturedly and brushed past her to wipe down a table. “A nice, older man talked to you yesterday, right?”

An enthusiastic nod from the girl.

“Really gentle and unassuming?”

Another nod, even more vigorous this time.

“Said we were looking for a new server, that we were understaffed?”

A smile.

“Yeah, that’s Grandpa. A real jokester. You’d be surprised how many girls a week I get coming in, telling me they work here now.”

The smile that had beamed from her face plummeted to the floor. Kai knew he was having a little too much fun with the hazing, that if the gleam in her eyes were any indication there’d be hell to pay once she found out he’d been messing around. But his lack of parental influence had given him an insatiable penchant for negative attention. And besides, he was mesmerized by her and the thought of how she’d react next.

“Grandpa!” He yelled into the kitchen. “I don’t need your help finding a girlfriend, I do just fine on my own!”

“What’s that?” A muffled reply amid the clank of pots and pans.

Kai swung back around to the newcomer, fully expecting bright red cheeks and embarrassed stammering and maybe just the tiniest telltale tear forming in the corner of her eye.

But she’d already walked away to face the door, apron on. “Hi! Welcome to Jin!” She addressed the group of customers who’d just entered. “Party of two? Right this way…”

She darted a glance at Kai as she ushered past him, and her voice tickled like a feather in his ear as she whispered, “My name’s Jinora. And I’m working here whether you like it or not.”

“I’m Kai,” He called after her while she sat the couple. A ridiculous grin spread across his normally wily face. “And that was the final interview. Congratulations, Jinora, you’re hired.”

* * *

 

“Jinora! We’ve got a party of seven coming in!”

Jinora emerged from the kitchen, eyes streaming tears and face red hot. “If I don’t die from this,” she snapped not only at Kai, but also at the cook and busboy snickering in the back, “I’ll kill you all after closing tonight. Every. Last. One of you.”

“That's hardly fair. Everyone has to take turns making the wasabi, Jinora.” Kai said soberly, trying his best to keep from laughing.

“Well, I never see _you_ looking like this after you mix the powder,” she muttered. She was double-fisting tissues- one to wipe tears away, the other to blow her nose.

“That’s a secret.” Kai winked. “If you’re lucky and you stick around long enough, maybe I'll teach you.”

"I think you mean if I decide to let you live through the night."

The bell on the front door chimed as the expected party of seven filed in. They had been talking and laughing but the conversation died away at the sight of their server's face. Kai handed Jinora menus and leaned over confidingly to the new customers. “Boy trouble,” he whispered loudly, shaking his head as Jinora hurried past him, her face even redder now with embarrassment.

“I’m going to kill you,” she mouthed when no one else was looking. Slowly, she pulled her finger across her neck. Her lips tilted in the slightest tease of a smile.

Kai just grinned back at her. Three weeks in, and he liked her even more than when she’d first walked through the door. It wasn’t often someone both sparked his interest and then kept it lit.

He waited until they were closing up, enjoying a comfortable silence while they wiped tables and folded napkins for tomorrow.

“You hungry?” He tossed a damp rag at her from across a booth.

Jinora snorted, caught the rag and darted around the other side to snap him with it. “Sure I am, but the _last_ thing I wanna have right now is leftover noodles.”

“ _Believe_ me, I’ve been working here three years and I hear you loud and clear. I smell miso in my dreams now.”

“It’s funny how appealing that would have sounded to me three weeks ago.”

Kai made a grab at the towel, but she was too quick and yanked back. Not accounting for the equal and opposite force, Kai found himself pulled into Jinora’s space. It was only an instant, but he was already replaying it in his head when it was over and he’d stepped nimbly away. Their grips on the towel was not the only tension palpable in the dim lighting of the noodle shop.

“I didn’t mean food from _here_ , by the way. I meant, we could go somewhere to eat.” His flinty eyes locked on hers.

She didn’t look away, just paused a little too long. “I can’t, I’ve got--” She paused again, floundering for the right words.

“--if it’s a date, then just for the record you should know that anyone who hasn’t hazed you with wasabi can’t be trusted. Unless he’s bigger and stronger than me, in which case this conversation never even happened.”

Jinora shook her head and smiled.

“Family waiting for you at home, then?”

“...yeah.” She smiled again, but it was a faraway smile, not meant for him. “I guess I do. My aunt promised to make me dinner tonight. How about you, Kai? I can’t believe I haven’t asked you where you live. Upstairs with your grandpa?”

“Grandpa? Oh,” Kai turned his cleaning attention to the counters, “He’s not my grandpa. I just call him that. I’m an orphan.”

“Kai--”

“It’s okay,” he cut her off. Kai hated pity, but her soft tone somehow didn’t feel like it. “I’ve been an orphan for almost as long as I can remember. Grandpa’s the closest thing to family I have, hence the nickname, I guess. I came to Republic City when I was a lot younger, lived on the streets for a good while. Grandpa caught me stealing leftover noodles one night and took me in.” He laughed a little at the memory. “He’s a softie, that’s for sure.”

He hadn’t been looking at Jinora during his story. Now, when he did, he saw her eyes were large and glistening. “Hey, you snort some of that wasabi powder while my back was turned?”

“You can’t just tell me something like that and expect me to not at _least_ need to blow my nose afterwards.”

Kai rolled his eyes dramatically. “Looks like grandpa’s not the only softie around here.”

They smiled at each other for the millionth time, but to Kai it somehow always felt like the first.

“Hey, you’re all done with your sidework-- get outta here. Enjoy your night. I’ll finish up the rest.”

Jinora obliged, throwing her towel at his face and ducking out before he could retaliate. Seconds later, he heard the tinkling of bells again as the front door was opened.

“Hey, I said I wasn’t free _tonight_. You never asked about tomorrow night.”

“Yeah?” Kai’s heart took a leap just as his eyebrow did. “Okay, tomorrow night. It’s a date.”


	2. Discovery

From the kitchen, Lin felt the swish-click of the lock mechanism turning softly in the front door. She’d been paying attention to the slow trudge of Jinora’s feet thudding against pavement for about a block now. Maybe she was just tired after a long shift. Maybe it was something else.  _ Or maybe I’m reading too much into things and should mind my own damn business. _ She winced. Despite decades of attempting to alter it, her inner voice still sounded just like her mother.

“Please tell me there is food and lots of it and it isn’t anything to do with Asian cuisine.” Even though the night was still, the curtains covering the kitchen window breathed just slightly when Jinora entered the apartment. 

_ “Do you know that you’re doing that?”  _ Lin, bright and limitless, had asked Tenzin over twenty years ago.

_ “Doing what?”  _ He had laughed, pulling her close and breathing her in.

_ “The air… it moves differently around you. More. You’re not bending?” _

“Liiiiiiiiiin…” 

She was no longer young and in love; she was standing over a stove cooking ground beef.

“What are you daydreaming about in there?”

“Nothing, you just reminded me of your fath- MEXICAN. I made Mexican. How do tacos sound?”

The silence in the other room floated over deliberately to Lin’s ears. There was no movement, not even air. Dust particles glinted in the light over the oven, suspended.

Then everything exhaled. “Tacos sound de-licious.”

After dinner, as Jinora washed up and Lin sat in the next room poring over the latest Republic City crime rate reports by district, the clinking in the kitchen came to an abrupt halt.

“Lin?”

“Hm?” Her usual gruffness masked her annoyance at the interruption.

“Do you talk to my parents much lately?”

Lin set down her papers. It was Jinora’s first mention of her family since her arrival. “Yes.”

Not to be deterred by her terse reply, Jinora hesitantly continued. “How are they?”

“Listen, Jinora,” she stood up and walked into the kitchen. Lin was never good at this conversational dance around the heart of an issue, so she skirted it entirely. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and your family, and I don’t need to. What I do know is that family is a complicated mess at its best, and a gigantic fucking shit show at its worst.” She paused to smile a bitter smile. “We all work it out in our own ways. And these past couple months have proven to me that you’re a mature young woman who knows what she’s doing.”

Lin slumped her shoulders and went to sit back down to her papers. It was the most she’d said to anyone in a long time, and she felt embarrassed at the speech. 

“They’re doing well.” she added when she heard the sniffles. “They miss you.”

* * *

Jinora had always been good at focusing while meditating. Various masters and gurus she’d read described letting their minds wander until they found themselves drifting along the right current, but that wasn’t how she did it. Jinora knew what she wanted and precisely how to get there.

Not tonight. (Not, if she was being honest, for months now. But that was another matter entirely.)

She was still good at focusing. Just not on the right things. Like Kai’s hair and how she badly wanted to run her hands through it, for instance. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t already. Maybe she’d be brave and do it tomorrow. She’d just have to wait for a moment when it wouldn’t be weird--

She was doing it again.

Focus.

_ Focus. _

A warm wind stroked her face, blowing through the open bedroom window. How long had it been since she’d done any bending? A part of her ached for it, felt as hollow and meaningless as wind chimes in a vacuum.

It had gotten so she never took her gloves off now. The shock of blue ink on skin felt almost like a lie, and she’d never excelled at dishonesty. Isn’t that why she’d left?

Guilt nudged at her last shreds of attempted concentration. Her eyes were still closed, and in her mind a split screen movie had begun to unfold.

On the left side, a young boy sat on a dirty curb near Jin’s Sushi and Takeout, his wild green eyes darting between passersby and the dumpster behind the shop. The front door bell rang; an employee-- or was that an almost unrecognizable Grandpa? -- carried out a trash bin full of steaming, leftover noodles. 

The other screen showed Jinora a few months earlier, packing bags onto Pepper in the middle of the night. Much like the small boy, her eyes darted back and forth uncertainly, but her hands tying the luggage to Pepper’s saddle were steady.

“Wait-- don’t go.”

Two voices called out into the darkness simultaneously. One, Jinora’s father, the other, Grandpa. 

Baby Kai stopped dead, hearing sirens calling from somewhere not too far off, stray noodles swinging from the corners of his mouth, the damning evidence of his crime. Jinora, too, turned to face her discoverer. 

As Jinora watched, she mouthed the words she had already said what felt like years ago.

“I can’t stay.”

Kai had taken Grandpa’s hand, following him into the shop like a stray animal might cautiously be led to the possibility of food and shelter.

“This is your home, Jinora. You belong here. What’s going on?”

It had just been too much. Of everything. 

“I have to decide that, dad. For myself.”

“What about your brothers and sister? Your mother? The new airbenders?”

Was this part of growing up? Your identity dissolving into a paltry list of responsibilities, of chores that you belonged to, not the other way around? It felt more like regression. Jinora could sense the tornado as surely as if she were willing it into being. But she wasn’t. No one was. 

“Tell them goodbye.” Such a dramatic, teenage thing to say. Not like sage little Jinora at all. She doubted anyone would understand. But then, what an even more dramatic, teenage thing to think. “For now, anyway.” She added, hoping that softened her previous sentence.

“We love you, Jinora!” Tenzin’s voice called somberly after her as she flew away on Pepper. 

She wondered if he’d heard her say it back. It might have been swallowed in the wind.

* * *

The smell of pancakes and the sound of Lin’s off-key singing from downstairs woke her. She’d nodded off trying to meditate, again.

Before she ran down to breakfast, Jinora fished around in her suitcase for a note she kept folded up in the pocket. Just Lin’s address with the valediction:

_ Love, mom. _

* * *

_ “--you float like a feather, in a beautiful world. . .” _

The radio crackled to life as Jinora twisted its knob.

“Is your aunt asleep, though?” Kai whispered, close enough behind her to make the hair on the back of her neck shiver. 

“Like a rock. Don’t worry, I won’t turn it up too loud.” Jinora spun around.

He was on his knees, air microphone in hand, lip-sync serenading her. “ _ You’re so fucking special, I wish I was special.” _

Jinora pulled Kai up with one hand, mussing his hair with the other. His hair was soft, and light, and she wanted an excuse to repeat the motion.

“Hey, Jinora, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” He leaned towards her.

“Wh-what’s that?”

“Why are you always wearing these gloves?” He gave a small tug on the fabric covering her hands. 

She swallowed and intertwined her fingers with his, hoping to deflect the question. Kai made her forget about that part of herself-- like she didn’t need airbending to still be her. But the date had gone well, so well that she was reeling from the high, and was actually considering coming clean.   
_ But I’m a creep _

_ I’m a weirdo-o-o. . .  _

_ What the hell am I doing here?  _ She thought the line as it whined out of the speakers. Here in Republic City, here with Kai, any of it? 

_ “You belong here,”  _ Tenzin’s voice called from memory.

_ “I don’t belong here,”  _ The voice on the radio called from the mantelpiece. 

She had to tune them both out. 

“What are you thinking, Jinora?” Kai exchanged one impossible question with another. His head was cocked to one side, his teasing not so much its usual mocking tone as it was curious and gentle. His hands still held onto hers, tethering her. 

Jinora was thinking about the proximity of her face to his. She was thinking she’d found her window of opportunity to touch that great hair again. She was thinking that for the first time in maybe ages, she knew what she wanted.

She kissed him, hard. 

“This,” she said, In the brief moment he pulled away to look at her before a second go. 

After a few-- minutes? Moments? Hours? Hard to tell-- Jinora felt the room spinning, and then she realized that she wasn’t having a metaphorical sensation. 

_ Am I . . . bending?  _

Air moved around the two of them; it tickled the bangs covering Jinora’s forehead. 

“Kai. . . ?”

But he was looking down, at Jinora’s now ungloved hands. He traced the arrows’ outlines, then slowly ran a finger up her arm to her face, pulled back the fringe of bangs, and kissed the revealed tattoo.

They looked at each other, equal parts culprit and detective. 

“You’re an airbender.” They breathed simultaneously. The excitement almost shimmered in the small space between them. “Me, too.”

* * *

Lin may sleep like a rock, but she never slept in. She had an impeccable inner alarm clock that lived in her stomach. So when she opened her eyes, sat up, and stretched, it took her mind a second to adjust to what was off.

She could smell breakfast. That was unusual. Jinora, who often came home late from working night shifts, never woke up before Lin. Lin would leave a plate of food out for her when she had to leave early for work, and when she didn’t, Jinora wouldn’t come shuffling down the stairs till an hour or two after her. On those days, they’d stay in and watch tv. 

This morning, she heard murmuring from the living room. One voice was certainly Jinora’s, but the other she didn’t recognize. Lin got out of bed and peeked out her door. Jinora’s room-- she’d begun to think of it as Jinora’s, not the spare anymore-- was empty.

She had no idea what was going on or what to do, so she yawned very audibly in hopes that it would announce her presence to whatever was going on in her house.

The voices stopped. Then, “Aunt Lin! Breakfast!”

“And company!” Lin called sassily back.

Jinora laughed. “Yeah. I’ve got someone for you to meet. And. . . Something to tell you.”

“You’re leaving.” Lin said. She paused on the stairs.

“Aunt Lin, come downstairs.”

Lin didn’t budge. “Where are you going?”

She felt the stranger take a few footsteps until he was right next to Jinora. “Home.”

And then, Lin was rounding the corner, smiling for Jinora. “And who’s the-- wait a minute,” She squinted her eyes. The boy looked familiar.

He squirmed under her gaze. “Good morning, Chief Beifong.”

“Meet Kai. He’s an airbender.” Jinora was beaming.

Kai bowed in respect, and when he came up again, it came back to her.

“You’ve managed to stay out of trouble for quite some time, young man.”

“Yes ma’am.” He said, squaring his shoulders like a soldier. 

“I seem to recall running into you a few years back.” 

“Yes ma’am.” 

Jinora’s head swiveled curiously between Lin and Kai. But Lin couldn’t hold up the ruse anymore. She cracked a wry smile, much to the boy’s relief.

“I made chorizo and eggs, Aunt Lin. Your favorite.” 

“Stop spoiling me, Jinora. I can’t get used to this sort of thing now that you’re leaving.”

“I thought you already had.” Lin looked at Jinora, who was bringing her a plate and ushering her into a seat at her own kitchen table. Jinora squeezed her shoulder as she set the plate down. Lin squeezed her hand.

After breakfast, when the three of them had cleaned up the dishes and finished helping Jinora pack, Lin knew it was time to say goodbye.

“Well . . .” She shrugged, wishing that for once she knew how to be something other than gruff. 

Jinora dropped the bags she was holding and threw her arms around Lin. “Thank you,” she whispered in her ear. Lin felt wetness on her neck where a stray tear from Jinora had fallen.

“I  _ told _ you you knew what you were doing.” Lin whispered back. “I don’t know if it’s possible for you, Kai,” she admonished Kai, sternly shaking his hand, “but try and keep Jinora out of trouble.”

“Yes ma’am,” he said again reflexively, and Jinora and Lin shared a laugh.

When Lin closed the door behind them, the quiet sounded stiller than normal. The air didn’t move quite as much. But Lin smiled to herself anyway. Everything was just as it should be.

  
  
_ fin _


End file.
